Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Bozek
I like Matthew Tkachuk, and will always remember the time he fooled Sidney Crosby to set upan overtime winner, or the betwwen the leg shot for a big goal. And he seemed to be showing progression of his skills over his time on the team. But that contract, which might have looked good if his play had shown continued growth, now looks very similar to what the Lucic contract must have looked to the Soilers after year 2. The contract makes him almost untradable, and a buy-out really isn’t in the cards. Current level of play isn’t worth anywhere near the $7M required for the next year of service, and if that’s the new Matthew, then you have to bite the bullet and lose him as a free agent. The $9M needed to retain him beyond 1 year is far too steep a price to pay unless he miraculously turns into a scoring machine. I think the Flames are stuck with him and just have to hope that this season was an aberration.
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I think that’s too harsh on Tkachuk’s value. Based on the large sample size we have, this is clearly his worst year. He still has a ton of value, and I would wager that many GMs would rather pay for Tkachuk’s services at 9m for a long period of time over Boeser or Meier. He brings more to the table, when you factor in things outside of scoring, namely agitating the opposition. He draws penalties like no other. Unfortunately, we’ve lost the locker room with him there. I don’t know what happened after the Muzzin scrum, but everyone with eyes can see that something leadership wise went down and Tkachuk hasn’t been the same. We don’t know who those players are, but signs point to Gio and maybe a couple of others.
If you want to retain Tkachuk, you’ve got to move the other ones that are against what he does. I don’t think he’s happy here anymore though, based on his lackluster play and also trading two of his very good friends in Rittich and Bennett.
If there was any time to sell him, then it has to be this offseason.